Frank Haith: Durand Scott “better than I thought”

With about nine months to go before UM’s football team kicks off the 2010 season against Florida A&M, it’s time to talk some basketball.
* Some coaches hate to give much praise to freshmen, fearing the young guys will get big heads. Not UM basketball coach Frank Haith, who is effusive in his praise for Durand Scott, who has helped lead the Hurricanes to a 14-1 record heading into Saturday’s ACC showdown with Wake Forest at the BankUnited Center.

Durand Scott (left), shown here tying up a Boston College player for a jump ball, has been impressive this season. (AP)

Scott’s numbers are modest. He’s averaging 8 points per game while shooting .418 from the field, but his contributions have been far greater than the statistics would suggest. “Durand has been ACC Rookie of the Week twice, largely because of his all-around play,” Haith said. “He’s had 20 points one time…but he’s been very consistent rebounding the ball, play-making. He’s been outstanding. The one thing I did not know was how quickly he would become a point guard. We didn’t know that about him coming in. We knew he had play-making ability, he could pass, he could handle the ball. But he’s really evolved into being an outstanding point guard. He’s a winner. He’s a guy who does whatever needs to be done in order for your team to win. He has a feel for that. There’s no question he’s better than I thought he was going to be…”

* Want to get a rise out of Haith? Quiz him about the Hurricanes’ non-conference schedule. The first two questions Haith was asked during Monday’s ACC coaches conference call regarded what some perceive as a powder-puff non-league slate. The Hurricanes’ strength-of-schedule is ranked No. 333 by CollegeRPI.com.
UM has an average margin of victory this season of more than 20 points with routs against the likes of Florida Gulf Coast, South Carolina Upstate, Nova Southeastern and others.
“I don’t think we’ve done anything that nobody else does in terms of our schedule,” Haith countered. “We’ve played a relatively competitive schedule – South Carolina in a tournament, Minnesota in the [ACC-Big Ten Challenge] and we also already played an ACC game [Boston College] on the road. I feel good about what we’ve already done. Those teams play other teams in our league. Go back and look at it. When you have nine freshmen and sophomores, we played some games to give those guys opportunities to play and get those guys ready. But you look at those teams we played, they play a lot of teams in our league.”

* Haith said he’s still trying to work out his rotation, but one player who has made the cut is portly big man Reggie Johnson.
After redshirting last season, Johnson is averaging 5.9 points and is the team’s third-leading rebounder with 60 despite logging a little more than 10 minutes per game. Johnson, who Haith said is tipping the scales at 300 pounds, began the season behind sophomore Julian Gamble, but is now the first big guy off UM’s bench.
“He’s only going to get better with the court time,” Haith said. “He’s got such good hands, good feet and great size at 6-10 and right at 300. He still needs to lose that weight. I’m still concerned about his weight. But he has great mobility for a guy his size. It’s only going to get better as he continues to trim his weight. He has been very consistent, rebounding the ball, finishing around the hoop and making his free throws. I like all those things about him. He gives us a presence along with Dwayne Collins in the paint.”

* Haith’s biggest concern as the Hurricanes head into their ACC schedule is the lack of a go-to scorer on offense. Senior James Dews, vastly improved over a forgettable junior season, is averaging a team-high 12.7 points followed by center Dwayne Collins at 12.0 points. “From an offensive standpoint, we have a number of different guys that can score and I like that about this team,” Haith said. “But we probably still need to establish that go-to guy. I think it will be Dwayne Collins and James Dews, our two seniors, but we still have to work and get to that point.”